Snow in Portland

I've been sitting in the office starring out the window at the snow falling on the garden. It's nice to have a different perspective.

I've been hearing some concern about PNW ornamental plants not being able to survive this cold weather, but the hardy plants will be fine. Plants have been around for billions of years and have figured out how to survive quite well, thank you.

If you do have bananas or palms or tropical plants like that, hopefully you have mulched them properly - they like it hot. Snow and ice, not so much. When I lived in the midwest, we even had to dig up canna bulbs and put them in the basement, but here I leave mine in the ground over winter. One questionable bulb is the colocasia or elephant ear plant. I have 'Black Magic' in my backyard which was totally impressive this year, and rocked my garden world all summer. It is not super hardy, but I left it in the ground to overwinter as I did last year, so we'll see how it performs next year. I did cut the leaves off before the storm hit and have them in a vase on my desk.



Stay warm and safe out there!